Obituary Notices. 35 



appeared in the " Edinburgh Monthly Journal." He there 

 also made observations in April 1854 near Eangoon on the 

 Flata Umhata, which he afterwards communicated to the 

 Linnsean Society, to which I shall immediately refer. 



In 1855 Murchison left the Indian medical service and 

 returned to London, where he became a Member of the 

 Royal College of Physicians. In this year his article en- 

 titled " Notes on the White Secretion of the Flata Umhata, 

 and on its relation to the Insect White Wax of China," 

 was contributed to the Linnsean Society, and published in 

 their " Proceedings." It is an able and well-reasoned paper, 

 and seems to justify his conclusion, that, while Hanbury 

 was right in regarding the Coccus pela as a source of 

 Chinese wax, he erred in excluding Flata Umhata from 

 that honour, for it seems highly probable that it is one of 

 the sources of that supply. In December 1855 he con- 

 tributed to our Society a paper " On the Chaulmoogra 

 Seeds of India," the produce of Chaulmoogra odorata, Eoxb., 

 or Crynocardia odorata. After referring to the poisonous 

 nature of the tree, but the bland character of the seeds, 

 and of the expressed oil, he proceeds to show how it is 

 employed, and what a high reputation the latter has in 

 India in cutaneous affections, and even in leprosy, and 

 that it is also highly prized by the Chinese. He acted • 

 as Demonstrator of Anatomy at St Mary's Hospital during 

 the same year, but this office he soon resigned, and was 

 appointed in 1856 Lecturer on Botany in that Hospital, His 

 next appointment was that of Assistant Physician to King's 

 College Hospital in 1856. In 1859 he became a Fellow of the 

 Royal College of Physicians. He was also a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society. In 1860 he was elected Assistant Physician, 

 and in 1861 Physician to the London Fever Hospital, an 

 appointment to which we are in great measure indebted 

 for that noble work on " Continued Fevers " which made his 

 name famous, and which will remain a lasting monument 

 of those high faculties of mind which he largely possessed, 

 and of the unwearied diligence and great accuracy and 

 honesty with which he prosecuted his extensive researches. 

 The first edition appeared in 1862, and the second in 1873. 

 In 1861 he edited for the New Sydenham Society " Frerich 

 on Diseases of the Liver." I pass over some appoint- 



